Scorpio Races and November Cakes

I love the feel of November when it's feels like November and not December. It has a feel of teeth and mist and blood and memories. At least for me. It feels soft, but I don't know how to explain how teeth and blood can feel comforting or peaceful. It also feels like tea and sweaters and that certain shade of soft white that the sky gets. It feels like moments, quiet walks, and it's just a little bit desperate. I'm a bit of a dramatic person, if I haven't given that away yet.

My point for this whole spiel thing is to recommend Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. There's a ton of reasons why I adore this book, but the whole feel of it is a huge reason- It just feels like November in book form to me. Which is great since it's set in late October/First of November. I have a lot of emotions about it...

I'm terrible at summing things up. I usually explain the entire plotline, have about three different tracks of the story going, and by the end you either know everything about the thing or you're left very confused. It's usually the latter, so I'm just going to paste the summary of Scorpio Races.

Some race to win. Others race to survive.

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

Some riders live.

Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

Honestly, I picked up this book last year because I love the Raven Cycle series and because it's Maggie Stiefvater. I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not but I thought I'd give it a try and now it's one of my favourites.

I made November Cakes earlier this month and they turned out stunning which was amazing because I thought I'd messed it up. Two things I might add about this recipe, I follow everything except I don't bother adding the orange extract (I just replace it with vanilla since the orange taste doesn't really come through) and the dough is going to be very sticky. You'll think you need to add more flour but you don't. (At least in my experience. I've only made it twice.) The recipe I followed was from Maggie Stiefvater's blog. November Cake Recipe

I had been planning on doing this post earlier this month but then I ended up not doing it. Then I read Samantha's blogpost for November Cakes and it inspired me to actually end up doing it, so here we are.